Heim, 31, grew up in the world of hair care. In the ’90s, her mother owned the first African hair braiding salon in Perth, Australia. “It was basically this tiny shed-garage attached to the back of this Italian restaurant downtown,” she says. “I would spend all of my time there when I wasn’t at school.” As she got older, she would help braid customers’ hair and answer phone calls at the shop. She also became fascinated with products.
Heim says patience was a key part of her natural hair journey: “It’s hard to switch from feeling insecure to supercomfortable with something overnight.” She first started wearing her Afro around the house, then around friends and family. “It can take a lot of time and conditioning to undo certain thoughts,” she says. Now, she’s found success in embracing flexibility both in her personal approach to beauty and in her business. “Rules can be broken and mended,” she says.